New Zealanders Hanging On, while Brits on the Brink

It’s quite common for New Zealanders to own long guns. The country is full of ranches and farms, all owned by families who come from long lines of frontiersmen.

Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- From a friend currently visiting New Zealand:

“There’s still a strong ‘Warrior Heritage’ here in New Zealand!

Not only via ancient Maori traditions, but also more recent contributions during WWI battles, particularly the Gallipoli Invasion.

Lots of war memorials and symbols here. I am told everyone on the Island during those years had at least one family member who died fighting the Great War. Many restaurants display facsimiles of military rifles of the period, and the symbology is embedded in much local architecture.

I’ve been surprised to see more than a few gun retailers! We stopped in one local gunshop, where we saw a large selection of hunting rifles, optics and other accouterments, and copious amounts of ammunition.

I was not expecting that!

The owner said it’s quite common for New Zealanders to own long guns. The country is full of ranches and farms, all owned by families who come from long lines of frontiersmen.

Rifles, shotguns, and ammunition may legally be kept in private homes. Handgun ownership is much less common, and is restricted to the ‘politically connected.’

Concealed carry of handguns (by non-police) is unheard of.

‘Ordinary’ citizens can go through the interminable paperwork required to ‘apply’ to own a pistol, but applications can be arbitrarily denied (and usually are), with no explanation.

Firearms ownership is regarded here as a ‘privilege,’ not a ‘right,’ and it is thus enjoyed only by the ‘approved.’

There are ‘levels of certification,’ each requiring additional paperwork and ever-higher political connections.

Each level adds additional ‘privileges,’ like semi-auto long guns, pistol-grips and other ‘military features,’ ultimately handguns.

New Zealanders don’t enjoy nearly the level of personal freedom that most Americans do, but they are far less restricted than are denizens of the UK!”

Comment:

And currently in the UK, ten percent of police are armed, and I think every single one was at the Royal Wedding.

In the “gun-free utopia” that the UK likes to think of itself as, there are curiously always plenty of guns protecting the “ruling class.” Guns are apparently ‘evil,” unless they’re protecting politicians.

Have we heard that before?

In an additional expression of national hypocrisy, UK’s National Police Council has had to grudgingly admit that their vaunted fleet of Armed Response Vehicles (ARMs), with a crew of thirteen firearms-qualified officers, which were intended to be “first at the scene” of “firearms incidents,” are mostly irrelevant in rural areas!

The Council is just now “discovering” response-times for these ARMs is so long in some locations that there is no way they could possibly influence the outcome of an armed-terrorist incident.

So, there is now even serious talk of rural UK LEOs being “routinely armed.”

Wow! Is nothing sacred?

Brits on the brink of admitting they’ve been stupid for the last hundred years?

“Virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and they differ less in their motives, than in policies.” ~ Seward

/John

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